How vigorous are the rest of your calves at birth?Was this a bigger than normal calf? She may have had a longer time calving it and therefore it is just slow.Hopefully it will come around, given some time and some colostrum or even milk. We used to use canned milk,although I KNOW that colostrum is what the calf needs. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Good luck!

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.

Faster horses wrote:How vigorous are the rest of your calves at birth?Was this a bigger than normal calf? She may have had a longer time calving it and therefore it is just slow.Hopefully it will come around, given some time and some colostrum or even milk. We used to use canned milk,although I KNOW that colostrum is what the calf needs. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Good luck!

Neat to have a couple thermos's of hot water and some canned cow along.

Feed the little dude, put him under the heater for a while.

Neighbors used to get a kick outa my wife using a Cadillac to check cows.She didn't back down atall."Field is smooth, easier for me to drag a calf in, leather wipes off easy, worth way less than good pickup, good gas mileage, nice tunes, great heater, lotsa room...."

Faster horses wrote:How vigorous are the rest of your calves at birth?Was this a bigger than normal calf? She may have had a longer time calving it and therefore it is just slow.Hopefully it will come around, given some time and some colostrum or even milk. We used to use canned milk,although I KNOW that colostrum is what the calf needs. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Good luck!

Neat to have a couple thermos's of hot water and some canned cow along.

Feed the little dude, put him under the heater for a while.

Neighbors used to get a kick outa my wife using a Cadillac to check cows.She didn't back down atall."Field is smooth, easier for me to drag a calf in, leather wipes off easy, worth way less than good pickup, good gas mileage, nice tunes, great heater, lotsa room...."

now there's an idear...we had a hay customer that would push a round bale around his horse pasture with his Cadillac every morning on his way to work

Moisture most any way it comes is welcome in my part of "The Great American Desert", yet if the snow is too dry and it is too cold for little calves, its worth is debatable. Same for what otherwise would be a great rain if it were just a few degrees warmer while we are calving. Wish it were practical here to calve later, but the grass goes to heck in a hurry if it is too hot and dry in spring and early summer. So sort of damned if it does and darned if it doesn't!

So far, it is looking pretty good. Grass has grown quite a lot for so early and cool as nights have been. Moisture is decent, with .96 by 8:AM this morning, and setting in with a good strong mist now. Was about 48% earlier, and dropped down a couple degrees lately. Miserable for those riding to check on new-borns! We calve in pastures, so given our largely gumbo soils, horses or ATV is the 'ride' for this day. The 'elder' cowboy here isn't minding bookwork as much as on a pretty day! Everyone else on the place gets pretty upset if he rides when conditions are favorable for accidents! And he isn't fighting them so much on it since he broke a bunch of ribs on a dry, PRETTY day last fall. Can't believe how fast he healed up from that one, and thankful for it, so he is behaving better since then. I think this rain has put us close to 3" for the year to date. Not sure what was in our 6"-8" snow a while back and haven't heard if anyone measured rain content.

WB wrote:Cold rain can chill a calf faster than you may realize. The smaller the calf the faster they become hypothermic. Likely no fault of the cow or calf or the feeding program.

BINGO! Keep a rectal thermometer in the truck. When a calf's body temp gets below 90-95 degrees, something must be done quick.(I put them on the floorboard of the truck with the heater on high...................)

A cold, windy rain is much worse than a dry 10-15 degree night, even with snow on the ground.